Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has predicted the fasting month of Ramadhan will not cause a high inflation rate as the government has striven to control the prices of prime commodities over the last two months
inance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has predicted the fasting month of Ramadhan will not cause a high inflation rate as the government has striven to control the prices of prime commodities over the last two months.
'It is still the middle of July but, if we look at the inflation rate in June, there is an indication that this year's Ramadhan and Idul Fitri inflation will be likely the lowest in the last five years,' he said as quoted by Antara news agency in Jakarta on Monday.
The minister said he did not yet know inflation predictions for July. However, it was projected that the month's inflation rate would be relatively low because the government had prevented commodity prices from increasing too much by formulating price control policies.
'This is an indication that we have managed to control inflationary pressures during Ramadhan and Idul Fitri. Last month, we already conducted market operations to prevent increases in commodity prices,' said Bambang.
The minister claimed that the efforts were effective in muffling inflation. Although there had been a trend of declining household consumption, people shopped nevertheless during Ramadhan and Idul Fitri.
'Ramadhan and Idul Fitri are two events with an unusual pattern of consumption. There have always been increases in demand no matter what the economic situation is,' said Bambang.
With an inflation rate of 0.96 percent from January to June 2015, the finance minister was certain that Indonesia's inflation rate at the end of the year would be within a range of 4 percent to 4.5 percent, or lower than the revised state budget assumption of 5 percent.
Earlier, the Central Statistics Agency reported that June's inflation rate stood at 0.54 percent, mostly contributed by increased price of several food commodities, such as red chilies, chicken, eggs and rice. (ebf)(++++)
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